At the launch of the global Muskoka
Initiative during the 2010 Group of 8 (G-8)
summit, the government of Canada promised to “make a significant, tangible
difference in the lives of the world’s most vulnerable people.” The Muskoka Initiative,
signed by all G-8 member countries, focuses on articulating principles,
developing measures, and promoting transparency and accountability in health
outcomes.

Canada and the other Muskoka signatories have contributed to
impressive progress in the past two years. According to the Canadian Network
for Maternal, Newborn and Child Health (CAN-MNCH), in 2012, an extra 700,000
children reached their fifth birthday as compared to 2010. In more than 125
countries, maternal death rates have fallen sharply in the past five years.

Three years into the initiative, Canada is on track to meet
its five-year commitment of Can$2.85 billion (the Canadian and U.S. dollars are
currently close in value; Canada’s pledge is about U.S. $2.76 billion). It has
already disbursed 60 percent of the total. Moreover, encouraged by the results
associated with its investment, Canada recently committed an additional Can$203.5
million to support the Muskoka principles. Prime Minister Stephen Harper recently
hosted a United Nations event on the health of pregnant women and young children,
where he made the announcement.

A symposium, IMPACT
2025: Working Together for Global Maternal, Newborn & Child Health, was held last month in Ottawa by the Canadian
government and CAN-MNCH. According to reporting from the event, “…despite some
remarkable progress, improvements in [maternal, newborn, and child health, MNCH]
have been uneven across and within countries.” Participants came together to
make a series of recommendations to the Canadian government to support current investments
by:

·
Maintaining political momentum

·
Leveraging global leadership in MNCH to reach the
Millennium Development Goals

·
Strengthening accountability frameworks

·
Promoting private sector engagement

·
Collaborating through a “Whole-of-Canada”
approach

These efforts by our neighbor to the north remind those of
us in the United States that there is global political momentum behind efforts
to improve health and nutrition outcomes for women and children. This global
nutrition momentum confronts the “massive
unfinished agenda” in nutrition that I wrote about previously. Global efforts
must respond to these unmet needs through new collaborations that leverage
available resources and emphasize best practices.

Such collaborations will help build an evidence
base of what has produced successful results—an important tool for moving
forward, as emphasized in the 2013 Lancet Series on Maternal and Child Nutrition.
Advocacy groups such as Bread for the World need these successes to help make
the case to the U.S. Congress that sustaining robust funding for nutrition is a
smart investment of taxpayer resources—prevention efforts that will be
leveraged by other donors and by national governments to make a “significant,
tangible difference” in the lives of millions.

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Bread for the World Institute provides policy analysis on hunger and strategies to end it. The Institute educates opinion leaders, policy makers, and the public about hunger in the United States and abroad. Bread for the World Institute is a 501(c)3 organization.